At UMass Dartmouth convocation, keynote speaker tells students to train for work force of the future

DARTMOUTH — To understand the “new economy” they will be facing soon, Kara Miller, NPR’s Innovation Hub executive editor and host, told students they need look no further than a neighborhood CVS.

Miller, the keynote speaker Tuesday morning at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s convocation, spoke of a CVS she is familiar with. It has six checkout stations, two that are staffed and four that are automated. It’s different than a few years ago, when all the cash registers were manned, she said.

Miller gave advice to the 1,525 incoming freshmen at the school, urging them to prepare for the jobs that will be available when they leave school, the ones computers can’t do.

Miller told students that employers will not care where they got their degree, but will pay them “for what you can do, for what you know.”

“Employers will want to know you’ve absorbed knowledge in a deep way,” valuing students who are able to connect and repurpose what they have learned when they need to do so, she said.

Miller advised students to be passionate about their work, but her best advice to the students she said was “to make sure you’re really learning.”

The convocation was conducted at the school’s amphitheater under the scorching sun, and UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman called it the students’ first test. As students complaining about the heat began to leave, faculty, staff and others passed out water bottles.

Grossman told students that almost all the alumni she meets from the school tell her a faculty or staff member, a coach or someone else pushed them to excel at the school.

“Keep your eyes open for that mentor ... who can challenge you,” she told students. “We are all here to help you succeed, so let us know how we can help.”

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs Mohammad Karim said that — with students coming from different countries, with different ideas and backgrounds — “what unites us is being a part of the Corsairs family.”

The freshmen come from 18 different states and 33 countries, according to school officials.

Francis W. Ndicu, president of the Student Government Association, told the students: “The ball is in your court,” explaining that parents are no longer there to tell them get out of bed and get to class. But that also means “you can make it what you want,” he said.

Ndicu also told the students that the school would serve as their home for the next few years.